The Milan exchange. (Milan, Gibson County, Tenn.) 1874-1978, 1887-06-18
a SHOE elRL,s HorEL.
How Three PlucISy Working-Women Es-
tabIished Creditabie Enterprise

tabIished Creditabie Enterprise
Notwithstanding the failure OF
Stewart hotel for working women 1t
appears that there is now in sue
cessful operation in New York City an
institution of that kind which might
we'll be copied in other cities. 1t was
started and is now carried on by three
shop girls, whose father died leaving
them $500 each. They went to the city
and into store where their wages
were not sufficient to feed and clothe
them without encroaching on their
capital. Finally, the idea occurred to
one of them that they might benefit
themselves and other girls in like posi-
tons by starting hotel especially for
them. We quote from the story as told
by the most active of the energetic
trio.
There were seven hundred women
about the establishment where l
worked, and we talked the matter up
mornings and nights with every one
that we knew. There were plenty of
girls who lived ut home with their pa
rents, but we found fifty or more who
jumped at the chance we offered them
and were continually urging us to go
ahead with the scheme. Finally we
began house-hunting. We were stag
gered 10y the city rents, as matter OF
course, and more than once gave up
the whole plan in despair. We had
staked our all on desperate chance,
and the longer we looked at it the
more certain appeared the prospect of
our loss. 1t was woman of whom we
hired the place, and she put the fig
ures as low as she could afford, and
promised us consideration in any diff
Guilty, so long as there seemed a
chance of our final success. There
wasn't money enough left to fur
nish very extensively, but we got to-
gether the necdflls for the Kitchen and
the dining-room and put up as many
-bedS-as our.last lingeringdollarswould'
buy The girls who had promised to
board with us were eager to come, and
most of them hadfEwomen' 81 knick-
knacks of one Sort or another tables
ors chairs or pictures on bhsso fancy
work that heightened up the bare
place wondeFhllly apdss nladcsit look.
sfromthe first week almost like a'honie.s
1t was because it felt like a home that
we did not fail. There were fifty of us
the day the House opened, and the din
ing-room and the big sitting-room and
the hallway opened running overwitli
z hosk ofdelighted children. 20 have
a.house 70 theinselvesavhere they could
do Us they pleased was a. luxury
that went ito theipsheads. They ran
supsstairs ahdS dowA.staiIs, and ! the
homelier nook or corner was
the better they liked it. 1t was
camping-out frolic, and picnics were
rare ienongh with themilall4 They
laughed because ] forgot towels in Or
dering the linen, and they laughed
when the anilkman went by without
leaving the milk. They satuptill past
midnight sewing the long seams ofgthe
sheets They unpacked their trunks
and settler the furniture and hustled
about in that first week of confusion,
in the firm couyiction'that the whole
experiment was the most delightful Of
jokes that had ever exploded in their
prosaic lives Nothing discouraged
and nothin daunted them. No matter
what went wrong, they were determine
ed to be pleased, and to find in every
mishap only the material for Jest.
put the board as low as Ilared, after
had calculated the rent and the coal,
the. gas and the table bills / left the
store, of course, and my sister did
the same. The three Of us undertook to
manage the house, and once things GOT
into running order we found no great
difficulty with the scheme. l inter
viewed the grocer and the butcher and
| the. fish dealer, and have been expert
menting from the start with simple
meals of wholesome variety and ma
teriaL Seventy boarders was the ut
most number we had room to accom-.
MEDIATE, and seventy boarders were on
the list before the first three weeks had
gone by. When the first month of our
experiment was over we had moncy.in
hand for q second months rent and
more i'll our pockets than if we had
stayed in the store. After looking al
that four weeks balance sheet | put
aside the last thought of disaster to my
plan. 1t would work; it was working,
and patience and good health could not
help carrying it forward without fail"
The building in which this Cheerful
| paragraph Of the city's history is being
written is double brick-house
Astounding in Il multiplicity of small
rooms, in u quiet by-street. 1t is no
over-furnished, but it never groans al